This month I am joining many other Masters of the Universe fans worldwide to celebrate the 35th anniversary of this great toyline in Spain. A friend of mine with a few other colleagues is writing a book about this topic that will be published soon. The title is "Yo Tengo el Poder: La Historia de los Masters del Universo en España", haven't you heard about it yet? Visit their Facebook site for all information regarding this topic, and don't miss the release!
My entry
today will deal with two figures from the 3rd wave (1984): Fisto and
Whiplash.
I got Fisto
as a kid. If I recall well, it was one of my first three or four figures, and one of my
favorites since back then. The concept is pretty cool, with that huge metal fist, and
the action feature, although a bit simple, was also amazing. Probably it is the
feature I used most among all figures.
The figure
itself, leaving the fist aside, is not very interesting: it has the classic cast and one of the
classic armours too. The head gets more attention, since there were not
so many characters with a beard. The colour mix: grey, purple and brown is a plus, I would say, and the long sword is also unique and cool. I guess it had to be a
sword, because his counterpart Jitsu also had one (a sword fits better to Jitsu than it fits to Fisto).
Whiplash,
on the other hand, is a figure I never had, although at least two friends of mine had it, and I played with it when visiting them.
Despite buying it a few years ago, being already an adult collector, I have a certain weakness for the character, since it was my nickname
in the community forum "Nueva Dominion - Eternia", where I used to
post regularly and where I met some other collectors and people who became friends until
today and beyond.
Back to the figure, it is based on a great concept, a muscled lizard that striked with its tail. In "battle" it is not a very practical feature, it is more handy to use the waist twist to punch other figures than to hit them with the tail, but it doesn't matter! It simply looks cool and makes the figure unique. The colour combination is not very original, just mixing two different shades of green (lizard=>green), and probably did not appel children as it does with adult collectors.
The figure came with an orange spear, matching its orage belt. This spear was originally straight, but with the time, if not kept horizontal, it tends to bend. Mine is not so bad.
Back to the figure, it is based on a great concept, a muscled lizard that striked with its tail. In "battle" it is not a very practical feature, it is more handy to use the waist twist to punch other figures than to hit them with the tail, but it doesn't matter! It simply looks cool and makes the figure unique. The colour combination is not very original, just mixing two different shades of green (lizard=>green), and probably did not appel children as it does with adult collectors.
The figure came with an orange spear, matching its orage belt. This spear was originally straight, but with the time, if not kept horizontal, it tends to bend. Mine is not so bad.
I would
like to say that I own two versions of Fisto (shown in the following picture). Note the
different hair colour, the different shades of purple in the armour and the
slips and the size of the head. The figure on the left is the one I had as a
kid, and it was made in France. The plastic in his left leg is a bit
damaged, but interestingly, this happened back in the 80s, maybe it was a factory production error. The figure on the right was made in Malaysia. Both swords are
slightly broken, they are very hard to find unbroken due to its fragility.
The
variants in the MOTU world are becoming more and more intereting for collectors.
What are we waiting for to start a variants webpage like the one for Kenner's Star Wars at "The Imperial Gunnery"?
I also have
this illustration from a Fisto card, which depicts our hero hitting no less
than Skeletor. Great art!
Read more about Masters of the Universe in these links!
FACTS and FIGURES:
- Name: FISTO (Ref. 7015) and WHIPLASH (Ref. 4935)
- Toy Line: Masters of the Universe (Wave 3)
- Year: 1984
- Company: Mattel (U.S.A.)
- Size of the figures: 5½’’ or 14 cm
Dos figuras espectaculares de la línea vintage.
ReplyDeleteNunca las llegué a tener de niño, pero siempre soñé con ellas, sobre todo con Whiplash. Me encanta esa combinación de tonos verdes, así como el diseño de la figura con esa cola de goma.
Y Fisto es otro gran personaje.
¡Muy chulas las fotos! :-)
¡Gracias! Las fotos son de un arroyo que pasa por aquí cerca, en verano esta muy bien para sacar fotos. Y lo mismo puedo decir yo de Whiplash. A Fisto si lo tuve (ya lo digo en el artículo, el modelo France es mío). En ocasiones nuestros padres o nosotros mismos, si ya teníamos una figura parecida, nos íbamos a por una muy diferente, por ejemplo, si tienes a Jitsu, ya no compras a Fisto, o si tienes a Kobra Khan, ya no compras a Whiplash y así.
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